Fathom Treats Numeric Data as Categorical

Troubleshooting > Problems with Data > Fathom Treats Numeric Data as Categorical

There are two common reasons for Fathom to treat numeric data as categorical: The values of the attribute include at least one non-numeric character that isn’t a unit (such as the letter o rather than a zero, or an asterisk representing missing values) or the attribute has a category set applied to it.

You can use a case table with a filter not IsNumber(TroublesomeAttribute) to see those cases, non-numeric characters. You can fix the problematic values by editing them, or you can create a new attribute using the StringToNumber function to strip out non-numeric characters. Or you could put the attribute on the down arrow of a summary table and scroll through it to see what the non-numeric categories are.

If all the characters are truly numeric, then the attribute might have a category set applied to it. Removing the category set will fix the problem. (In the collection’s inspector, with Details showing, select the attribute and choose None from the Set pop-up menu.) See Control Behavior of Categorical Attributes Using Category Sets.

If these aren’t the problem, perhaps Fathom is failing to recognize units. Make sure you have the Units file in the right place by looking in the Fathom folder from your desktop. The Fathom application folder (the folder that the Fathom application itself lives in) needs to contain a folder called Helpers; that folder needs to contain a file called Units.xml. (By default, all helpers are installed correctly.) If the Helpers folder or the Units file is missing, quit Fathom, copy the missing components from the Fathom CD, relaunch, and try again.